Subscribe to this blog

Follow by Email

Search This Blog

History of Electronic Music in India

India got talent. I thought of naming the post as History of Alternative Music in India but then, there are too many alternatives - alternative Pop, Alternative Rock etc. I just wish to focus on the history of electronic music in India that came in mainly via remixes. Remix can again be categorized into different types of genres. As such, remix is not a hard-definition genre but for sake of this post, we'll consider it a genre. I will define the term 'remix' in the next few paragraphs in this article about history of electronic music in India.

Bringing Remix To India

I credit Gulshan Kumar of T-Series with bringing remix and promoting the trend in India. Of course, there were some DJs (Disk Jockeys) as well but in 80s, people were rather obsessed with original soundtracks of both old and new music rather than listening to modified soundtrack.

While talking about 'remix", clearly it is not a genre but is used very well in different genres, mainly dance. History of electronic music in India is history of remix in India.

Using a loophole in the copyright law (1957) of India, Mr Kumar got his musicians to add "jhankar" (some drums with plenty of drum claps or whatever you call it. I can't remember the exact word for those effects around 16Khz frequency in a standard 10 band equalizer).

I define remix as adding own music to the "original soundtrack" of some movie or other piece of creation. The emphasis here is on the original soundtrack. If it is not original soundtrack, it is not remix. We'll come to that in a while.

When the other music companies holding original copyrights to music objected to this practice, courts modified the Copyright Act of Performing Acts (1957). The new changes stated that none other than the production house can use the original soundtracks for maximum 60 years from date of production of those tracks. But then, the court used the term "original soundtrack" which gave further boost to Gulshan Kumar and his music company named T-Series.

PS: It becomes necessary to mention here that the credit of bringing vinyl cassettes and tapes to common man, goes to T Series that is now handled by his brother, Kishan Kumar.

History of Electronic Music In India

Legal jargon is a fun and can be manipulated in as many ways as one can. All a person needs, is a brain that can locate ambiguous laws and use it for own benefit. When the courts banned usage of "original soundtracks" and said they can be used only by the production house that paid for it, the consultants of Gulshan Kumar came up with an idea that boosted not only the sales of electronic music based on new movies but also brought up new faces/talents to the mainstream.

To understand it more clearly, T-Series stopped using the "original soundtracks" and instead, had new talents sing those songs to own orchestra that was mainly electronic. Now this created much, much better versions of the new releases and probably the "Jhankar version" (as they were called) sold more than the original records. Instead of purchasing the new records as they released, most waited for the "Jhankar" version to be released. This was beginning of the electronic era of music in India.

Bringing Out The Talent - T Series

Not only the latest releases, the T-Series hired fresh talent to sing old songs from Hindi movies and converted them to own electronic versions. This saw the emergence of many a singers and actors (as T-Series also created movies around music). I won't go into detail there else this post would be limited to T-Series.

Still, I would like to state that the following names owe a lot to Mr Kumar and his T-Series:

1. Sonu Nigam - Was associated with T-Series until the fall of T-Series due to an accident explained in the second point here)
2. Anuradha Paudwal (went on to become an alternative for Lata Mangeshkar but suddenly withdrew after Mr Kumar as assassinated by some Mafia for reasons not made public)
3. Kumar Sanu - Not only sang for T-Series but also was hired by different production houses.
4. Attaullah Khan - This is was a whole different story. A Pakistani singer who became famous across Asia just because T-Series recognized his talent.
5. Vinod Rathore and many many more...

Bally Sagoo

The above section was an off beat but the story of T series would be incomplete if I don't mention it. Bottomline is T-Series used own orchestra, electronic, on all types of music to create a history of electronic music in India. That was in the 1990s before the famous DJs Bally Sagoo, Suketu and Aqueel captured the market.

Bally Sagoo

The numbers from Bally Sagoo were not exactly remixes because they did not use original soundtracks. Instead, someone sung the songs while Bally Sagoo arranged music. Not all of Bally Sagoo is electronic.

This person had an amazing talent with electronic. While the Dubstep was still in its infancy - limited to Britain - Bally Sagoo came up with an album called Asian Dub. This album was released somewhere in 1999 and satisfied most of the conditions of Dubstep. If you want me to be more precise, let us call it electro-dub.

Rise of Electronic Music In India

Bali Brambhatt

Following Bally Sagoo came up plenty of DJs such as Aqeel, Suketu and more. They were not remixes but covers. They had people singing songs on live orchestra under the Dance and Pop genre. Nonetheless, both Suketu and Aqeel produced some of the best rocking numbers.

Within these names pops up a name that stands a bit apart! Bali Bhrambhatt, was not much into mixing but did create a number of good dance numbers that rocked pubs and parties.

These DJs found place in emerging Indian electronic music Though most of their numbers were dance & pop as discussed above, some of their creations fall under electronic mixed with other genres. I am not sure what to call them.

Then, there were music companies that knew the people in 90s were more oriented towards fresh voices and off-beat music. They hired these talents to cater to the tastes of the music lovers. Their music is still played in many pubs even all these years. There are some other names without which the 90s won't be complete: Baba Sehgal, Alisha Chinoy, Biddu, Nirvana and not to forget, Apache Indian. They were electronic, more inclined towards pop, dance and hip-hop. I might come up with another article to cover the rise of alternative music in India. For now, let us bring our focus back to history of electronic music in India

The New Age Electronic Music In India

Just when I thought the phase was over, I suddenly found talent all over India in the electronic genre and not limited to that genre. I discovered this breed accidentally in 2010 when looking for some electronic real remixes instead of covers.

You will be impressed to know that in India, we have a good number of lady DJs: DJ Rink and DJ J-Ya deserve a mention. All of them are just experts in spinning disks. Plenty of other names exist but cant put all of them here. And in this case, they are remix: electronic music over original soundtracks.

I might as well add that this too is just another good phase of the history of electronic music in India as I am now finding some other genres dependent on "electronic" already spread all over the world - created by Indians but yet to be accepted in India.

DISCLOSURE: Please note if you purchase any products using links in this blog, Powercut Media (India) will receive some commission. Rest assured, our reviews are not biased. We wont recommend anything we did not try.

Get link

Facebook

Twitter

Pinterest

Email

Other Apps

Get link

Facebook

Twitter

Pinterest

Email

Other Apps

Popular on Powercut Media

After five years of testing different multipurpose apps for Android maintenance, I realize Clean Master from Cheetah Mobile is the best maintenance app for Android phones. Not only maintenance, Clean Master offers you much more than you can expect from a single app.

For a while, it felt the "All in One for Android" is good. But turned out it leaves out add-ins even after you remove it. What is available in single code in Clean Master of Cheetah Mobile, is available as add-ins in All in One app for Android. When you uninstall All in One app, the add-ins continue to run in RAM. I could not find any method to remove them as they were not visible in any App Managers. I had to do a factory reset and that was when my doubts were removed and I acknowledged Clean Master of Cheetah Mobile is the best option for Android phones.

Lock Screen
Here are features at a glance. Let's start from Lock Screen. Replacing your phone lock screen, you can set up Clean Master Lock Screen. It help…

You might have noticed that all mantras begin with the sound of "OM". What you might have ignored or failed to notice that mantras in Sanskrit end with "ithi" or "swaha". Some of you end mantras with just a "namah".

Not to scare you, but if you fail to use "ithi" at end of each mantra or at the very end of any stotra (hymn), the mantra & related offering (sacrifice or prasadam) doesn't reach the god being prayed.

The word "ithi" marks the end of mantra, and urges gods to accept whatever you are offering.

The word "swaha" is used more in havans (rituals were you put offerings/prasad directly into fire). Since people put offerings into fire while saying "swaha", many of us associate it with "destruction". When anyone says "sab kuch swaha ho gaya (everything became swaha)", it does and should not be concluded that he or she lost things. It is a wrong notion that associates "sw…

Bhishma is one of the powerful characters of the epic, Mahabharata that contains and shows a pious way of life to the mortals living on earth. I am starting this Analysis of Mahabharata Characters with Bhishma as he is the oldest character in the epic/saga and has tremendous influence on the other characters of Mahabharata. Bhishma was the son of king Shantanu and Ganga (the river Ganges in female form). Bhishma was considered one of the eight Vasus (rishis) who had to take birth on earth due to a curse. Before we analyze the character, let us take a quick look at the story of Bhishma according to the Mahabharata.
Background Of Bhishma
Bhismha is considered one of the eight Vasus who stole a cow named Kamadhenu from a sage. When the sage cursed them to take birth as humans, all Vasus asked for his forgiveness. The sage, for seven Vasus who helped the main Vasu to steal the cow, reduced the curse to death just after birth. However, the main Vasu who actually stole the cow was to stay …

Join our Whatsapp Group

About Arun Acharya

Technology is passion and so is reading fiction. I am the person to contact if you are starting out online or before expanding your presence online.Successfully wasted decades learning what works where when it comes to marketing. Windows MVP & expert in churning out ideas you can use.